Giant Treasure
by Chaos Evans
Summary: Mary, a Chaotic player, finds an odd battle gear that sends her back in time. In the few minutes she was in the past she creates big changes to Perim and Chaotic history. Now only her and a creature know about the timeline getting messed up but how will they correct it?
1. Chapter 1

_._

 ** _Giant Treasure_**

 **Chapter One:** **The Orb of Time**

In an old tunnel beneath the giant and ancient city of Gigantpaplis, a chaotic player is looking around the old passageways for any signs of dangerous traps, and using her red scanner as a flashlight to see through the pitch black tunnels.

Her name is Mary and right now she is hoping to find some kind of new (or rather old) battle gear that could boost up her deck's power.

She had a lot of native American blood in her family, making her skin have a brownish tint to it. But Mary was too pale and her facial features looked more European than native American for people to think she came from the old native tribes of North America. Standing at 5'6 tall and weighing 180 ponds, her body was in good shape. She had long, black hair with a streak of purple in it and a pair of bright green eyes. Her outfit was a simple green T-shirt, blue jeans, and brown boots.

She also had a large, black backpack filled with supplies that could last three days for her scan quest. Even though her scan quest was only suppose to be an all day thing, she knew that more often than not scan quests don't always turn out as planed (a lesson Mary had learned the hard way back when she was a newbie). She had sworn on her scanner to never again go to Gloommuck Swamp without an extra pair a boots and air freshener.

Considering all the gross cobwebs, dust, and the unbearable stench which Mary had no idea where it was coming from, it must have been a very long time since anybody had came down here. Or maybe someone or something did come down here and whatever bit of them that never left is whats making the gross stench.

"Man, there's nothing to scan down here." she whined, unhappy for walking for hours and only seeing cobwebs. She was starting to get very bored of this solo scan quest. She hasn't even seen or triggered a trap for two whole hours. "Maybe, I should just go home." she told herself. "And maybe I shouldn't talk to myself like a weirdo."

Thinking it over for a second, she decided it would be better to go to Chaotic and find someone to battle with than to stay there and keep running into cobwebs. And also to get someone to talk to before she makes it a habit of talking to no one.

She was about to hit the return button on her scanner, but stopped when something shiny on the ground caught her eye. She pointed her scanner's light at it.

Laying on the ground was this odd looking orb that kind of looked like the battle gear called a flux bauble but smaller and its chain was longer.

She picked it up by the chain to get a closer look at the thing.

It looked to be made out of gold and silver, and the orb encased inside the precious metals was constantly changing colors. It was pretty in her opinion, but she didn't care how it looked as long as it could provide something useful for her chaotic team.

"Well, better than nothing I guess." she mumbled, then held up her scanner in front of it and pressed the scanning button. Several small beams of blue lights shined from her scanner to capture the code and data on the odd thing.

When it was done she looked at the card. " _Orb of Time_ ," she mumbled, thinking to herself. She never heard of a battle gear with that name before, but that really didn't surprise her all that much considering that it's probably very old.

What does it do, is the question she needs to answer.

"Okay the name obviously means it has something to do with time, but what?" she asked herself. She knew there were some mugix and location scans that could effect time and space, but she has never heard of a battle gear having power involving time.

She put her scanner away then looked at the strange item again, trying to find something about it that could give her a clue as to what it did. Turning it around a few times, she spotted a very tiny crack. It was so small, she was surprised she saw it in the first place.

Suddenly it began to glow a bright yellow and blue color, then a blinding light surrounded her.

In one second the bright light came and went away. She opened up her eyes to see that nothing happened, she was still in the exact same spot that she was in and all the dust and cobwebs were still here. She didn't feel any different and all of her limbs were still attached to her body.

"Must be broken or something." she said, thinking the tiny crack may be the reason for it not working.

Not wanting to waste any more of her time down in the underground tunnels, she walked back up towards where she came from. Since she find something in the tunnels, she thought her luck on this scan quest was turning around for the better. With her mood turning better, she thought she could find something else above ground where there was no cobwebs to get into her hair and fresh air to breath.

Still having the odd bauble thing in her hands, she thought she might be able to trade it to a creature as jewelry for a scan. It could turn out to be very valuable even with the tiny crack and she could get a great price for it. She already scanned the thing, so now it was only useful for trading.

* * *

After two hours of walking, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Something was not right.

When she first came this way there was a trap that she stepped on by accident. The trap was a simple net, but had a shook to it when you touched it. She was able to dodge it when it fall from the ceiling and she had left it there on the floor not wanting to touch it and get shocked. But now the net was no longer there.

She knew that she left the net there, because she remembered the weird stone pig's head that was on the wall next to the trap. It was the only statue between where she found the odd bauble thing and where she was standing now.

That put her all of her senses on high alert. Three possibilities came to her mind: one, the trap can reset itself; two, a creature could have come by and took the net and; three, a creature reset the net for some reason. There was only one way to find out which one was right.

She quickly stepped on the trigger plate and was barely able to dodge the net the second time. The net was much faster, which struck her as very odd. If she was able to dodge it the first time without knowing about it, then the second time should have been easier. Thinking it over, she decide that a creature must have come and reset it, but this time making it faster.

She looked back at the net, the electrical charge looked more powerful and possibly more deadly. She shuddered to think what could have happened to her if the net had caught her.

This scan quest was a total bust, so far the only thing that she found was that odd bauble thing that didn't even work and now there was possibly a creature who might want her dead, walking around in the old tunnels. Not wanting to meet the creature who reset the trap or waste any more of her time down in the dark and smelly tunnels, she transported her code to an Overworld city that had one of the largest shopping and trading centers in all of Perim. Maybe she could find a creature willing to trade something for that bauble thing.

* * *

She transported just outside the city on a grassy hill-side where she could see the entire city with its stone buildings, a few small fields where the farmers grew the crops, and all the creatures who were out walking to their homes and businesses.

As she was admiring the view, she noticed that something about it looked different to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She has been here many times before and knew the city well. So she would be able to tell if there was something wrong with the city or if there was something amiss with the creatures who lived here.

She quickly spotted the main dirt road that would lead her directly to the city's front gates. The road had a few creatures on it either going or coming from the city, which was normal even though most cities in Perim didn't have that much traffic coming into or out of the cities. It looked like most of the creatures were riding in wagons, some were on an animal of some kind, and then there was the few like her that were walking on foot to the city.

She was not too far from the main road, maybe a two-minute walk at the most. But since she was in a hurry she ran the distance, cutting the two-minute walk into just one minute.

Getting onto the road, she began to slow down to catch her breath.

As she was walking towards the city, she kept thinking of how it felt different. It looked the same, but something was defiantly different with the Overworld city. She was too deep in thought to notice that all the creatures around her were giving her strange looks like they have never seen someone like her before.

She finally got to the city and by this time she began to notice that all the creatures were staring at her. The looks she was getting did not really bother her all that much. She was used to creatures staring at her because they have never seen a human before, but she never got this kind of reaction from creatures in this city before.

It's not that uncommon for creatures not to know about or to never had see a human before, but in this city Chaotic players were very well known so she was unsure why they would be looking at her like she was some kind of an alien (well she was technically an alien, but still that didn't mean they should stare at her). The realization of what was different about the city hit her like a ton of bricks dropping onto her head.

There was no chaotic players anywhere in sight. Of course, not seeing a single human in many of Perim's locations was not odd, but at this city you can find dozens of humans walking around the streets daily.

Chaotic players always come here to trade treasures they find in Perim; the creatures in the city were use to Chaotic players coming and going, they never had stared at her like this before.

The stares were really starting to bother her now and part of her wanted to hide somewhere, but she still wanted to go looking inside the city to see if there were any other players there.

 _"This weird bauble most have something to do with this, but what did it do?"_ she thought while holding up the battle gear. Now that she was certain that the thing did do something, trading it for a scan was now the farthest thing from her mind. _"It may be a good idea to port back to Chaotic till I figure out what's going on. I just pray that nothing weird has happened to Perim."_

She didn't want to transport where every creature around her could see, so she calmly walked to a back alley where no creatures were around. She got out her scanner. But before she could press the return button, the ground began to shack like an 8.5 earthquake on the MMS scale.

Buildings began to crumble and fall, even the more sturdier ones were collapsing. It was like the buildings were made out of cards instead of stone. Creatures were screaming in panic and running for their lives. Children were calling out for their parents, and friends were trying to find each other. No one knew what to do. Earthquakes never happened in this part of the Overworld, so there was no plans of emergencies for earthquakes. Everything had turned chaotic in only a few seconds.

Thinking fast, Mary tried to transport out of danger, but then a piece of rubble fall from one of the buildings and hit her on the head. It was not a very big piece, so the worst she could have gotten was a mild concussion.

Though a concussion was far from being her worst problem right now. When the rubble had hit her, she dropped her scanner and now she cannot see it.

Not only that but explosions began to go off and from the sound of the blasts, they couldn't be too far away from where she was at.

This could no longer be called an earth quack. The city was under attack. But by who or why Mary didn't know nor was she thinking about that. Leaving was the only thing on her mind.

She needed to find her scanner, it was the only thing that mattered right now and it could possible be the only thing that will get her out of this mess.

She was scared out of her mind. Her arms and legs were shaking from fear, and she was having a very hard time thinking straight. Mary, of course, has went through many situations just as scary as the one she was in now, but the fear of death never goes away no matter how many times she has escaped danger. Being a Chaotic player meant running into very grim situations ever now and again while in Perim, but that does not mean players get use to all the deadly chaos.

Frantically looking around, she saw her scanner in the street a few feet away, but creatures kept kicking it around as they tried to get to safety. If they kept on kicking it so much then it could soon break. Mary had know idea what would happen to a player if their only way home breaks, and she didn't want to find out.

She ran after it, bumping into creatures left and right. The creatures were running in the opposite direction of where she was trying to go making it feel like she was swimming up the Niagara waterfall.

Now that she was closer to the explosions, she could see why all the creatures were going the other way. Just up ahead there were Underworld soldiers firing at the citizens.

So it was the Underworlders attacking!

Looking up she saw Takinom attacking from the sky. But there was something odd with the way she looked. For some reason she looked much younger. She looks closer to the age of her adapted daughter Nivenna.

Mary didn't think too long on Takinom's new youthful look. She was in danger and needed to think only on escaping.

Suddenly, a massive red demon came out of nowhere and picked her up by grabbing her back pack.

"I've never seen a creature like you before." said Chaor. Mary has never been so frightened in her life. The most powerful Underworlder was inches away from her face, looking at her as if she was a bug to be squashed when he lost his curiosity.

 _"Fuck!_ _Fuck! Fuck!"_ She repeated in her head, thinking how badly screwed over she was.

Chaor, like Takinom, looked younger by years, but Mary was too scared to notice; even looking younger, Chaor was still very intimidating.

"P-please let me go, Chaor." she pleaded. Chaor looked surprised at what she said, but she didn't know why. She thought he liked it when weaker creatures bagged for their lives, at least that what she heard from all the stories players talk about back in Chaotic.

"How do you know my name?" he growled. Mary was frowning because of what he asked. It didn't make sense. Everyone in Perim and Chaotic knew who Chaor was and what he looked like. Why would he be surprised that a chaotic player knew who he was?

"How can I not know of the all powerful Ruler of the Underworld Tribe." she said, hoping to please his massive ego a little bit and maybe buy her some more time.

Chaor's face turned from quasting to dumbfounded.

Before he could say something else, a power pulse attack hit him in the back, making him drop Mary on to the cold, hard ground. Since Chaor was holding her up about eight feet off the ground, the fall really hurt, but the good news was now she spotted her scanner ten feet away next to a fallen house. Who ever it was that attacked Chaor, saved Mary's life and destracted him long enough for her to get up and run as fast as she could to reach her scanner.

It felt like an entarnty, running through all the chaos and dodging the fire attacks from the Underworlders, but then she finally got to her scanner and quickly picked it up off the ground. She swiftly pushed the butten, not even looking or caring what location it was set for and transported out of there in a blink of an eye.

Little did she know of the giant consequences that her slight intervention with the attack on the city has made in Perim and in Chaotic.

* * *

Her scanner was still set for the city, but it did transport her to a much safer place than where she was at. She had transported to the same spot that she first transported to - the mountain side. But, seeing what was happening to the city and its inhabitants made her wish she could have transported anywhere else even an Underworld prison would have been better.

The city looked like an inferno. Underworld troops surrounded the entire city, there was no way anyone could escape the flaming city of death. She could hear the screams of pain from the poor unfortunate citizens who were being slaughtered by the hundreds and she could smell the burning of flesh all the way to where she was standing.

Seeing that there was nothing she could do and unable to look at the massacre any longer, she took out her scanner to transport back to Chaotic. Before she could press the button, the weird babble began to glow again.

"Oh shit!" she yelled in surprise, as she reached for it, trying to stop it from whatever it was about to do, but it was too late. The bright light engulfed her body like before and just like the last time it went away as fast as it came.

Her eyes were shut tight, too afraid to open them, but even though she couldn't see, she could still hear and smell. All the screams were gone replaced with calm sounds of the wind and faint sounds coming from the city. The wind didn't carry any scent of fires or smoke.

She slowly opened her eyes to see that the city was back to normal and there was no signs that just seconds ago it was a blazing death trap. No Underworld troops could been seen and all the creatures that she could see looked perfectly fine.

The Underworld invasion was over or it looked more like it never happened in the first place.

"Great I must be losing my mind. No more eating week old pizza for me." she said, half jokingly, but the tone of fear was undeniably heard in her voice. She was very shaken up about what she had seen, but she managed to pull herself together.

She had no idea what happened, one minute the whole location was in war the next everything was peaceful. She wanted answers and the only way to get them was to go back down to the city (though she really didn't want to go back down there after what happened).

Putting the strange babble in her backpack for safe keeping, she made her way to the city.

The walk back to the city was more like running, but in her opinion it might as well have been walking; she wanted to get there quickly and her legs just were not fast enough for her taste. After a minute of running, she was out of breath, but at least she was finally at the city again.

The creatures were giving her the same stares as before, but Mary did not care about that any more; she just wanted to know what was going on.

Sitting down at a table, eating lunch, was an elderly creature who looked like a dog with scrunched up face. He saw Mary across the streets, and noticed how she was looking around like something was going to jump out and attack her. He thought she was strange looking, but over the years he has seen many things and knew not to judge a creature on their looks alone.

Standing up and abandoning his food, the old creature walking over to her, "Excuse me young creature is there something I can help you with?" he politely asked. he wasn't the type to help out people in distress, but to him and other creatures, Mary looked very young. Young enough to still be called a helpless child.

Mary was surprised at first, but was glad that someone might be able to answer her questions.

"Yes, thank you, Mr... " she began to say, but trailed off when she realized she didn't ask for his name.

"You may call me, Glorot." The name sounded funny like a word some kid would make up to name a toad, but she didn't laugh. Many names in Perim are odd. Then again maybe human names are odd to creatures.

"Okay Mr. Glorot. Umm, well I was wondering if there was an attack by the Underworld army recently." she asked, hoping she didn't sound like a nutcase. He gave her a look that told her that she probably did sound a lot like a nutcase.

"No, there has not been an attack on the city by the Underworld for quite long time now." he answered her. Glorot looked surprised by her the question, but Mary was thinking too much to notice.

"How long ago has it been since the last attack?" she asked, not sure if even she wanted to hear the answer.

"It's been eighty solans." he told her. Mary was having a really hard time processing what Glorot was saying. Eighty solans is around forty years. How is that possible? Just a few minutes ago the whole city was a flaming death trap. She stopped thinking of this bizarre situation for a second to see that Glorot was staring at her, probably waiting for her to say something else.

"Thank you, Glorot for your help. I'll leave you now, sorry for any inconvenience I caused you." she politely said.

"It was no trouble. If you need anything please just find me, my shop is only two streets away from here, and I'll try my best to help you."

"Well, thanks again for all the help." she said, then walked away.

The creatures around her kept looking at her, but she ignored them as she was thinking over the new information she got.

If what Glorot had told her was true then that left two possibilities: first, she somehow went back in time and possibly came back to the present or another different time and: second, would be that the Underworld attack she saw didn't really happen and it was all just some kind of hallucination. But, the hallucination idea wouldn't explain everything that was happening unless she was still hallucinating.

Stopping, she just thought of a simple way to find out if she was or wasn't hallucinating. All she had to do was simply transport her code back to Chaotic! That way whatever mind control or unknown influence that is effecting her mind would go away once her code was safely transported there. She knew it had to work, because that's how some of the players were able to break free of the M'arriallian's mind control.

Not caring anymore if the creatures see her transport away, she quickly pushed the return button. Instantly her Chaotic body turned into blue code then vanished, giving the creatures who saw her diaper a slit heart attack.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **Well I've had this story for years now and thought I would try finishing it in 2018. Don't think I will finish it, but it's nice to get the story posted. Thanks for reading and please leave a review.**

 **Have a happy New Years!**


	2. The New Chaotic Part One

_._

 **Chapter two: The New Chaotic Part One**

After her code materialized, Mary knew something was still very wrong.

"How the heck did I transport outside?!" she said, looking around wide eyed at the odd, colorful buildings that made up Chaotic.

Nothing was out of place and everything looked the same as when she was last here, but the fact that her code was transported outside and not on one of the transport pads was not a good sign.

She always thought the transport pads were necessary for the transportation process (however that worked), so it was very odd for her to not have been on one of the pads, but she has no idea how the technology in Chaotic works. So maybe the Code Masters made it to where they didn't need the pads no more to transport to Chaotic. At least that was what she was hoping for, but surely, they would have sent out a message explaining that. She needed to find answers and fast before something else weird happens.

There weren't any players around her, but she could see that there were a few people standing next to the Amzen drome.

Deciding to go ask if they knew anything about the transport pads, she went towards the nearest person.

"Hey." She greeted a random guy who was sitting down on a bench, playing with his yellow scanner. "The name's Mary." she held out her hand to him.

The guy looked up and smiled. "I'm Drake." They shook hands.

"So, anything new in Chaotic?" she asked, not sure if she should outright ask about the transport pads or not. It didn't help that she normally wasn't good at talking to new people.

Drake shrugged his shoulders. "No. Nothing new that I know about."

Mary bite her lower lip, thinking if she should just ask, but her gut was telling her something wasn't right, and she didn't want to say something that would give her unwanted attention.

Sighing, she asked: "Is there something wrong with the transport pads?"

Now Drake looked confused. It looked like he had no idea what she was talking about. Well too late to take her question back now.

"What are transport pads?" he asked. He was either a really good actor and playing a joke on her, or he really had no idea what she was talking about. Taking a deep breath Mary thought it would be best to end this conversation.

"Never mind." she said. "I got to go. See you around." she walked off, trying to keep her emotions together.

She felt like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but she somehow managed kept her emotions in check.

Chaotic was supposed to be the safe place; the place where players could go to have fun and not worry about the problems on Earth or Perim. But right now, Chaotic didn't feel safe for Mary. All players knew about the transport pads and if that guy didn't even know about the transport pads then what are the chances that the pads are still here? She knew that Drake was not a newbie (she has seen him battle in the Tirasis drome a few months back), so he should know about the transport pads.

She thought she was losing her mind. It was like when she first transported to Chaotic. Being teleported from her bedroom to a strange place did not do any good for her nerves.

Needing to find out about the transport pads, she walked straight to where she remembered the nearest set of transportation pads should be at, which were inside the Port Court.

She sighed in relief when she saw that the pads were at the same place they have always been. That meant that she wasn't losing her mind, but then why would that guy say he didn't know what they were?

Maybe he was the one going crazy here and not her. Though as nice as that would be, she seriously doubted it.

Seeing one of the Port Court robots was close by, she waved the flying robot over. "Hey, robot dude." she called out. The robot quickly came over to her.

"May I help you?" the robot politely asked, though Mary got the feeling the robot did not like being called 'robot dude'. She didn't want to take up too much of the robot's time, since it was holding a tray filled with food that some players were waiting for and the fact that the robots can become rude when a player keeps them from delivering food.

So unlike with Drake, she just got straight to the question she wanted answered. "What are those pad things on the floor called?" If the robot was surprised by the weird and random question, it didn't show it. She thought it would be better for her to ask the robot instead of another player because if she was sounding crazy then the robot wouldn't care one way or another. It would probably just think she was acting like any of the other irrational humans it has to serve food to every day.

"They are called return to home pads or RTH pads for short, which is what Chaotic players normally refer to them as." the robot informed her in that emotionless tone the Chaotic robots are known for. That wasn't the answer Mary wanted to hear. "Is that all?" it asked, and Mary just nodded yes, her eyes were glued to the metal floor, too deep in thought to give a verbal answer. The robot quickly left to deliver the food.

Her legs felt wobbly. She needed to sit down and think. Finding a nearby table with no one setting there, she put her backpack on the ground and took a set. Pulling out her scanner, she started staring at the screen, making it look like she was playing on it so no one would think she was just starting off into empty space for no reason.

 _Why me? What did I do to get stuck in this mess?_ She thought, but she knew it was most likely because she just had to rob an ancient temple and tried to trade away that babble thing, which was what probably made everything change. Well, not everything had changed at least not from what she has seen so far in Chaotic. In fact, the only thing that has changed in Chaotic is the name of the transportation pads and how they functioned.

The new name didn't even make that much sense to her. Why 'return to home' pads? Was it because players used them to go home? She really didn't like the name change, but at least that's the only thing different about Chaotic. She hopped it was the only thing that changed.

Her scanner began to buzz, telling her that someone was calling her. She saw that it was Perim Princess, one of the newer players who Mary has been hanging out with for a few weeks now. Her real name was Shinwan and she was becoming quite popular in Chaotic. On her first day in Chaotic, she made Chaotic history by becoming the first player to scan a M'arrillian.

Even though they've been talking and hanging out in Chaotic, Mary couldn't say they were friends. Sure, she knew her, but not well and she never called her before. She didn't know why Shinwan would be calling her now of all times.

She tapped the icon to answer and the second she did, Shinwan's face appeared on her screen.

"Where are you?" she asked, sounding concerned, which confused Mary. She wasn't close enough to Shinwan for her to be worried about where she was at.

"Sitting down at a table in the Port Court." Mary told her. She was not sure why Shinwan wanted to know, so she asked: "Why do you want to know where I'm at?"

Shinwan looked surprised. "Did you forget about our match today? I reminded you yesterday, how could you forget?" she asked, her voice changed from worried to irritated.

 _What? I didn't have a match scheduled for today. I didn't even see her yesterday,_ Mary thought, thinking back to when she checked her Chaotic schedule. She had checked for any matches to make sure she wouldn't miss any while she was gone to Gigantpaplis. Her next match was two weeks away and she knew she didn't ask Shinwan or anyone else to battle with her.

"Are you coming or not? I don't like standing around in a drome all day you know and I'm sure other players would like to use the drome too." Shinwan said, braking Mary out of her thoughts.

"Um, sure I'll be there." she said. Not that she wanted to go battle, since she was still freaking out about what's happening to her. She just agreed out of an impulsive decision without thinking. "What drome are you in?" Since she didn't even know about the match, she wouldn't have known what drome to go to.

Shinwan rolled her eyes, "I'm in the Chirrul drome."

"Okay, I'll be over there in a minute."

"You better, I can't hold the drome for much longer. The drome-voice-robot-thing is about to call this match a forfeit." Shinwan then turned off the communication.

Taking a deep breath to steady her nervous, Mary stood up from the table, picked up her backpack and left to go battle Perim Princess.

She was fairly close to the Chirrul drome, so it didn't take long for her to make it there. Shinwan was in the drome standing on the other side, with her scanner docked and the screen hologram up.

"Awesome! You made it just in time!" Shinwan joyously said, "The Chaotic holographic icon was a second away from calling it a forfeit and kicking me out." Mary didn't respond because she didn't know what to say. Shinwan looked a little worried, but Mary didn't think much about it. She also tried to ignore the fact that Shinwan was staring at her like there was something wrong about her.

"What's with the backpack?" Shinwan asked.

Mary didn't think explaining her trip to Gigantpaplis would be a good idea at least not right now. So, she just lied to her. "The me back home was going on a camping trip, so I had this with me when I transported my code here." Shinwan did not look like she was buying the story, but she didn't bother to ask any more questions to Mary's relief.

Walking up to the scanner dock, she locked in her scanner in and the large hologram appeared in front of Mary. It was showing all her scans. It also revealed that this was going to be a three vs. three match.

Since Mary was an Underworld player most of her creature cards are Underworlders and her location deck was filled with hot, fire locations from every corner of the Underworld. There were a few non-Underworld cards like the Gigantpaplis location card, which she put in as one of the ten locations for this match.

Shinwan already had her deck sit up when Mary walked inside, so she was just waiting for Mary to pick her cards. She didn't have to wait long though, because Mary just went with her favorite scans, not even thinking of a strategy for the game. With all that has happened to her today, her mind couldn't think about the match. She really didn't care if she won or not.

Once, she put her last card into place, she locked in her deck and said, " Battle team locked."

"Let's get Chaotic." they both said, though Shinwan sounded more energetic while Mary sounded like she just wanted the match to be done with as soon as possible. Mary normally loved saying those three magic words like every player in Chaotic, but she wasn't in the mood. The only reason she even said the words were to let the drome robot know that she was ready for the match to begin.

The board hologram then changed to reveal the teams.

"Who're those creatures?!" Shinwan gasped, pointing to the board. Mary was confused by what Shinwan asked.

The creatures on Mary's team were: Ulmar and Nivenna in the front row and in the back row was Chaor. All three Underworlders are well-known in Perim and Chaotic, so it was a shock to Mary that Shinwan acted like she has never seen them before.

For a moment, Mary thought that maybe Shinwan just didn't know who Nivenna was, since Nivenna is an uncommon scan and there were still many players who didn't know she existed even though Nivenna had a high position in the Underworld hierarchy. Shinwan was still very new to Chaotic, so it would make sense that she didn't know about Nivenna, but the way she asked made it sound like she didn't know any of the three Underworlders. She should have at least recognized Chaor; the Chaotic company used him enough in their advertisements to were even non-players knew about him.

"Um, they're just some Underworlders." Mary said, not sure what to tell Shinwan.

"Wait, is that Nivenna?!" Shinwan shouted, her jaw dropped down and her eyes widened from shock, "Why does the scan say she's an Underworlder and what is she wearing?!" she asked looking horrified.

"Isn't that what she normally wears?" Mary asked, looking at her Nivenna scan. It looked normal and Nivenna was wearing what she normally wears.

"NO! Look at my scan of her," Shinwan said, getting Mary to look at her team, which she hadn't done yet. "That's a normal scan of Nivenna." Now it was Mary's turn to be shocked.

The first thing she saw that was different between the two scans of Nivenna was that Shinwan's scan had Nivenna as an Overworlder. Mary felt feint at looking at the scan.

The Overworld Nivenna was wearing armor that looked just like her twin sister, Aivenna's armor, but with different colors. Aivenna's armor is white with blue trimming, while this Overworld Nivenna's armor was a shade of blue darker than her skin with white trimming. Her red hair had changed as well, but not by much. Part of her hair was braided at the end of it that draped on her left shoulder, which was the same style as Aivenna. The only difference about the twins' hair was that Aivenna's braid was on her right shoulder while Nivenna's was on her left.

The background of the card looked like it was an Overworld location, but Mary couldn't tell which location. There was a stream of fresh water behind her, so it could have been somewhere in the River Lands.

Her stats were about the same, except now she had no mugic counters, she had the element of water, her speed was higher, and her wisdom was a little lower. Nivenna wasn't even a Muge in Shinwan's scan. Instead she was an Overworld warrior like her twin sister.

Mary has never seen Nivenna look so much like Aivenna. It wasn't just her new outfit and her new hair style or her new powers or new rank in the Overworld. It was her smile that throw Mary off.

Nivenna was an Underworlder, so her smile tended to look mischievous or smug just like other Underworlders'. But the smile on this Nivenna's face was warm, welcoming and filled with pure joy. It was like it wasn't even Nivenna in the picture, but someone else who just happened to look a like her.

"ButterflyMary015, since you were late for the match by twenty minutes, Perim Princess will attack first." the robotic voice informed them, getting both girls to stop staring at the scans. The voice put extra emphasis on the twenty-minute tardiness.

"Well, I have no idea how you got an Underworld Nivenna scan or any of those other two weird Underworlders for that matter, but don't think this means you'll win. I'll defeat all three of them in no time. " Shinwan declared, arms on hips with a wide smile and determination shining in her eyes.

"Just pick a location and who attacks first. I can't wait to see how your creatures will do against mine." Her words didn't hold the normal banter tone players used to intimidate one another. She wanted to see if there was anything else different with Shinwan's Nivenna card and also if her other Overworlders were changed in some way. Looks like this match has become a research mission.

Shinwan's three Overworlders were: Viqtarr and Aivenna in the front row with Nivenna in the back. The creature Mary wanted to battle the most was Nivenna, but to get to her, Mary would have to defeat Viqtarr first. Though she also wanted to battle the Aivenna card as well. Aivenna looked the same from what Mary remembered and her stats were normal.

Shinwan spun the randomizer. The locations kept appearing then disappearing on the holographic board before it began to slow down until it stopped on Kiru City.

 _'At least the location looks the same.'_ Mary thought, looking at the location scan. She looked over towards Shinwan. _'Now, she just has to pick the creatures then this game can get going.'_

"Let's see, who should I fight first," she said, looking at her options. " Viqtarr attacks the little green dude in Kiru City." she said, not knowing Ulmar's name.

"His name is Ulmar." Mary told her, though now she wished she hadn't said it because right after she told her, Shinwan's eyes slightly widened. That could only mean that her Ulmar scan was in some way different than what he is supposed to look like. Mary wished she knew what was going on and why Shinwan didn't know any of her creatures (while she knew Nivenna and apparently Ulmar, but they were now _different_ than what Shinwan thought they should look like).

"Wow, that's Ulmar? But he has a body. That's so freaky." Shinwan said, staring at Ulmar's picture. Mary was just happy that Shinwan wasn't asking anymore questions.

"Players, please touch your scans, so the battle may commence." the robotic voice instructed, somehow managing to sound annoyed even though its tone didn't change from when it previously spoke.

Mary couldn't blame the robot for getting a bit inpatient with them. She had been late to the match and now they were wasting time by standing around, looking at each other's team. There were probably other matches scheduled for today, after all, and other players may not like waiting for their turns while she and Shinwan weren't even battling, yet.

"Okay, okay, no need to get all snappy," With one finger, Shinwan lightly tapped her scan of Viqtarr. The same finger that touched the scan was the first part of her body that began to change and within a few seconds, Shinwan was an oversized grizzly bear.

Mary had to suppress a grimace from overcoming her face. Shinwan's scan of Viqtarr only had two things wrong with him, but other than his missing left arm and both his eyes completely intact, he looked just like how Mary remembers him.

She touches her scan and is instantly turned into Ulmar.

"You know, Mary, if you did somehow forged or altered your Ulmar scan then you could have at least have made his body not so small and weak." Shinwan said, her voice now sounding like Viqtarr's much more deeper voice. "What's the point of cheating if it just makes your creatures weaker?" she said, in a teasingly tone.

"I'm no cheater!" she protested. Shinwan's tone and choice of words was meant to get a raise out of Mary and it worked big time. Being accused of cheating, even if it was meant in a more playful way than in a hostile way, made her angry and ready to show Shinwan that she would never resort to cheating just to get a win.

Her anger almost made her forget about how everything was different. For all that she knew, this was probably how Shinwan acted towards her.

Shinwan, for her part, looked taken aback by Mary's sudden outburst. She just wanted to get the girl into a fighting mood. Why was she suddenly getting angry at her?

Before either of the two girls could say anything farther, the drome turned into the ancient Kiru City.

The drome had put Mary outside on the roof of some large five story building, close to the center of the heart of the city, which meant it was more than likely a government building or something along those lines.

Ulmar's eyesight wasn't that much better than a human's, but Mary could still see a good way away from where she was standing. Unlike Shinwan's creatures, her scan of Kiru City looked the same as of what Mary remembered, so that made her feel a little better knowing that not everything has changed.

From where she was at, she would have the small advantage of being able to spot the giant bear creature and making it hard for Shinwan to use a sneak attack on her. But then Shinwan had just as good a chance of seeing her first and with the battle gear that Mary gave to Ulmar, she would have a better advantage leaving the high ground for now.

Ulmar was weak compared to the Overworlder Viqtarr and even if the grizzly bear was now missing an arm, there was no doubt that Mary as Ulmar wouldn't last a minute in hand-to-hand combat with Viqtarr.

She will have to be careful to only use long range attacks and to stay far away from Shinwan. That is if she didn't have her battle gear out, then Shinwan would have to be careful getting close to her instead.

Carefully climbing her way down from the rooftop, Mary jumps off the side of the building once she was close enough to the ground. With the tall buildings made of marble and stone surrounding her, she has lost her great view of the city and with her still being out in the open, she was at a major disadvantage.

Viqtarr spent most of his life in Kiru City and he knows the ends and outs of the whole place. Compared to Viqtarr, Ulmar was a newbie in the ancient Overworld capital. Although, Ulmar has been to Kiru City before to steal the Overworlders battle gear and a few times during the M'arrillian War when he was a part of the Alliance, he still did not know that much about the city.

With the limited information Ulmar had, Mary had to rely on her own knowledge of Kiru City to help guide her through the maze of buildings. Not the easiest of tasks but it's not like she never fight like this before.

Keeping to the shadows as best she could, Mary moves as silently as Ulmar could.

She went like this for a few minutes. Normally, it doesn't take players long to find each other; maybe ten minutes, but there have been matches that have taken hours for the players to find each other.

Her nerves were starting to get to her. It felt like every corner she turned there would be a giant bear there ready to attack.

There was a faint noise to her left.

She turned just in time to get hit by a wooden cart.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **In case you didn't know this, Shinwan first appeared in the episode "Newbie" in season two.**

 **I'll try getting through the match next chapter but I'm not good at writing fighting scenes.**


End file.
